1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a component housing having a mounting plane for surface mounting a semiconductor component on the component-mounting surface of a printed circuit board. The component housing includes a chip carrier, which has an approximately planar chip carrier area and is composed in particular of electrically insulating material, a semiconductor chip, preferably having an integrated electronic circuit, is secured on the chip carrier area, and electrode terminals having a surface-mountable configuration. The electrode terminals penetrate through the chip carrier and are electrically connected to the semiconductor chip.
Such a surface mounting configuration, which has also been disclosed as a Surface Mounted Design (SMD) configuration, enables the application of an electronic component on a circuit board in a manner that is particularly space-saving and affords a low structural height. In this form of mounting, the component terminals are no longer inserted into holes in the printed circuit board, as in the case of plug-in mounting, but rather are placed onto pads on the printed circuit board and soldered there. Components for surface mounting can be smaller than for plug-in mounting since hole and soldering-land diameters of the printed circuit board no longer determine the contact spacing of the terminals. Furthermore, the holes which are necessary only for component-mounting are dispensed with on the printed circuit board, it being possible for the holes which are required merely for through-plating to be made as small as is technologically possible. Since, moreover, a double-sided population of the printed circuit board is also possible, a considerable space saving and a major reduction in costs can be obtained by surface mounting. A particularly small structural height of the electronic component is produced in this case if the electrode terminals which penetrate through the chip carrier and are electrically connected to the semiconductor chip are configured in the form of terminal legs. The terminal legs are routed out toward at least two sides of the chip carrier and are bent and cut to form short rocker-shaped terminal stubs.
During the application of surface-mountable semiconductor components on the component-mounting surface of the printed circuit board, it is necessary to take account of the possible buckling of the printed circuit board. The buckling behaviour is principally dictated by tolerances and might otherwise pose problems in the course of component-mounting and during subsequent use of the populated printed circuit board. Owing to the extremely small bottom clearances of the ends of the terminal legs protruding from the side parts of the housing, in the region of 1/10 mm, the mounting of such components on the printed circuit board requires trimming and forming tools of exact operation during the production of the components.